Limited viewing time in online education

ABSTRACT

A method of limiting tokens for use by a student within an education application displays numerous membership options. For a price, a certain number of tokens are allowed per month. At the end of each month, tokens do not roll over; the account is reset with the monthly allotment of tokens. If the number of tokens in the account reaches zero, access is blocked. A method limits account sharing by using a limited time viewing window for videos and documents. A stated time limit displayed to the student is greater than the length of the video. An actual time limit not displayed to the student is greater than the stated time limit Requests to restart the video within the actual time limit are granted. A request to restart the video after the actual time limit is denied unless the student again pays the number of tokens equal to the value of the video.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/064,292, filed Mar. 8, 2016, entitled “LIMITED TOKENS AND LIMITEDVIEWING TIME IN ONLINE EDUCATION,” which in turn claims priority of U.S.provisional patent application No. 62/151,858, filed Apr. 23, 2015,entitled “ACCOUNT SHARING DETECTION AND PREVENTION IN ONLINE EDUCATION,”both of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. Nos.15/064,207 and 15/064,255 (filed on the same date herewith, entitled“ACCOUNT SHARING PREVENTION IN ONLINE EDUCATION” and “ACCOUNT SHARINGDETECTION IN ONLINE EDUCATION,” which are hereby incorporated byreference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to online education. Morespecifically, the present invention limits tokens used and limitsviewing time in order to discourage fraud in online education.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Online education is a very promising approach to education and isprimarily based upon the use of computers and mobile devices forlearning, in addition to the use of other more traditional resources.Individual user accounts for students are often used to provide access,to track payments, to track progress, etc., but can be ripe for fraud.For example, students may attempt to share another student's accountwhen each student preferably should use his or her own account. In otherwords, a student shares his or her valid account with another studentwho has not signed up nor paid for the service. Or, a number of studentsmight attempt to share a fictitious account.

Account sharing is problematic and detrimental to learning, as accountsharing creates a disincentive for the education provider to producehigh quality material (due to the monetary pressures of server costs,curriculum specialists, programming time, etc.) and makes it unfeasiblefor the education provider to continue to provide high-quality,high-time investment resources to students. This account sharing canlead to a proliferation, for instance, of subpar or generalizedmaterial. The cost of producing high quality, specialized material ishigh, and account sharing makes it untenable for education providers tocontinue to provide resources at a high level. This leads to a “race tothe bottom,” in which education providers offer generalized material ormaterial that does not involve significant monetary or time investmenton the part of the education provider. This in turn, affects thestudent, as the student will no longer receive the high quality productshe or he initially anticipated. Furthermore, sharing accounts makes itdifficult for the student to benefit from data-driven analytics thatsuggest the proper material or courses for a student, given thestudent's usage of the material and the student's performance. Thestudent's learning experience is degraded and does not benefit from thestrengths of online education, namely, personalization and quality ofcontent.

In particular, it can be beneficial to discourage account sharing fromoccurring, and if it does occur, to increase revenue from the studentsinvolved. Accordingly, improved techniques and systems are desired.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To achieve the foregoing, and in accordance with the purpose of thepresent invention, an online education system is disclosed thatdiscourages account sharing and increases revenue using varioustechniques.

In a first embodiment, a technique to limit token use presents the userwith a number of membership options, each option corresponding to aprice and a certain number of tokens per month or other time period. Theuser account is credited with the number of tokens per month. Tokens arededucted for watching videos, viewing documents, etc. At the end of themonth the account is reset to only contain the number of tokens allowedeach month.

In a second embodiment, a technique to limit token use registers for astudent account in a database a number of tokens allowed per month orother time period. Periodically, at the beginning of each month, thenumber of tokens in the account is reset to be the number of tokensallowed per month. Tokens are deducted for watching videos, viewingdocuments, etc. If the number of tokens in the account ever reach zero,then access to educational content is blocked until the studentpurchases more tokens.

In a third embodiment, account sharing is limited by using a limitedtime viewing window. Tokens are deducted from a student account forwatching a video or viewing a document. Should the student pause thevideo, and then request a restart at a later time, the request isgranted if the elapsed time is under the stated time limit that had beendisplayed to the student. If the elapsed time is less than an actualtime limit (which has not been displayed to the student) then therequest is granted. The request is denied if the elapsed time is greaterthan the actual time limit There is a distinction between the statedtime limit and the actual time limit so that it easier for the providerto discourage fraud.

In a fourth embodiment, account sharing is limited by requiring moretokens. A student uses a certain number of tokens to begin watching avideo or viewing a document. Once a request is received from a studentaccount to restart a video or document that had been paused earlier, theelapsed time is compared to an actual time limit. If the elapsed time isgreater, then the request is denied. The video or document is onlyrestarted (or allowed to be played again) if the student again allowsthe required number of tokens to deducted from his or her account.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention, together with further advantages thereof, may best beunderstood by reference to the following description taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a specific embodiment of anonline education system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of software modules and hardware components ofan online education computer server in accordance with a specificembodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an authentication system according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 4 illustrates a window presented to a user for purchasing tokens.

FIG. 5 illustrates a window indicating a successful transaction.

FIG. 6 illustrates an account page for a particular student.

FIG. 7 illustrates a window showing the history of a particular studentaccount.

FIG. 8 illustrates a window showing a token agreement.

FIG. 9 illustrates a window that appears when a student has run out oftokens in a particular month.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram describing one embodiment by which tokens arepurchased, used and recharged him in connection with an educationapplication.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram describing use of a limited time viewingwindow for watching a video.

FIG. 12 illustrates a computer system suitable for implementingembodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Although embodiments of the invention may be used in a variety ofcontexts, in one specific context online education is promoted andmanaged by an education company via a Web site or a mobile applicationaccessible from any computer or mobile device. A student seekingeducational assistance with K-12 school or college coursework or withstandardized tests (e.g., GRE, LSAT, MCAT, etc.), using resources suchas videos, electronic documents, printed documents, live reviewsessions, one-on-one consultations with tutors, etc.) uses the Web siteor mobile application to sign up or log in to a student account. Accessto the relevant content is then provided via an education applicationhosted on a server computer.

Block Diagrams

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a specific embodiment of anonline education system 1, which may be implemented via a computerizeddata network to provide the service of the education company. Asdescribed in greater detail herein, different embodiments of system 1may be configured to provide various different types of functionalitiesgenerally relating to online education. As shown, system 1 may includeone or more of the following types of computers, systems, networks, Websites, databases, mobile devices, etc.

Online education servers 20 perform and implement various types offunctions, operations, actions, and other features such as thosedescribed herein. Educational video presentation computer servers 25include videos of educational courses, videos of tutors presentingreview materials, etc., all used by students who have access to system1. Public/private education networks 40, include, for example, studentinformation systems, student data management systems, course managementsystems, etc., used by schools, colleges, and universities.

User computer systems 30 include any suitable desktop, laptop, tabletcomputers, etc., operable to provide the various types of onlineeducation described herein. User mobile devices 60 include any suitablemobile telephone, personal digital assistant, etc., operable to providethe various types of online education described herein. Internet andcellular networks 10 include suitable wired or wireless networks usedfor communication between the entities of system 1. Third-party systems50 include computer servers, Web sites, software, etc. of social mediacompany sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of software modules and hardware components ofan online education computer server 20 in accordance with a specificembodiment. These modules and components may be implemented upon asingle computer or upon multiple computers in communication with oneanother.

Context interpreter 202 is operable to analyze contextual criteriarelating to a detected set of events and automatically determine oridentify one or more contextually appropriate responses based on thecontextual interpretation of the detected events. Contextual criteriainclude: location-based criteria; time-based criteria; identity of auser; user profile information; transaction history information; recentuser activities; and proximate business-related criteria. Timesynchronization module 204 is operable to manage universal timesynchronization (e.g., via NTP or GPS). Search engine 228 is operable tosearch for transactions, logs, items, accounts, or options in the onlineeducation system databases. Time interpreter 218 is operable to modifyor change identifier activation and expiration times based on variouscriteria such as time, location, transaction status, etc.

Authentication/validation module 247 includes user identifiers,passwords, software/hardware identifiers, SSL certificates, etc., whichare operable to perform various types of authentication and validationtasks such as: verifying/authenticating devices,verifying/authenticating users, verifying passwords, passcodes, SSLcertificates, biometric identification information and/or other types ofsecurity-related information, and verifying/validating activation orexpiration times, etc.

Interactive study wall module 222 is operable to implement various typesof wall functions such as allowing a user to post text and images to awall, or to read postings on a wall. White board management module 211is operable to perform various types of electronic whiteboard functions.Video presentation recording, playback, streaming module 223 is operableto facilitate, enable, initiate, and perform one or more of theoperations relating to the video presentation techniques describedherein. Database manager 226 is operable to handle various tasksrelating to database updating, database management, database access,etc.

Log module 209 is operable to generate and manage transactions historylogs, system errors, connections from APIs, etc. Web interface module208 is operable to facilitate and manage communications and transactionswith other Web portals. API module 246 is operable to facilitate andmanage communications and transactions with other APIs of other systemsor networks.

Processor 210 may include one or more commonly known CPUs, which aredeployed in many of today's computers and consumer electronic devices.Memory 216 may include volatile memory (e.g., RAM), non-volatile memory(e.g., disk memory, FLASH memory, EPROMs, etc.), unalterable memory, andother types of memory. Interface 218 includes wired or wirelessinterfaces. Device drivers 242 includes functionality similar to one ormore computer system driver devices generally known to one havingordinary skill in the art. One or more displays 235 may be implementedusing, for example, LCD display technology, or other types ofconventional display technology.

E-mail Server 236 provides various functions and operations relating toe-mail activities and communications. Web server 237 provides variousfunctions and operations relating to Web server activities andcommunications. Messaging server 238 provides various functions andoperations relating to text messaging or other social network messagingactivities and communications.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an authentication system according to oneembodiment. Included is a user 320 interacting with a computer 330, suchas any of devices 30 or 60 mentioned above. Also included is a varietyof information hosted upon a content delivery network (CDN) 350. The CDNmay be any of a variety of networks such as Akamai, Limelight, AmazonWeb Services, etc., and the information need not be hosted upon a singleone of these networks, but may be spread across different networks.Included is a Web site of the education company 351, an educationapplication 352 (mentioned above), user postings 353 (e.g., textualcomments, photographs, etc. commonly known as a “Wall”), PDF files 354or any other type of electronic documents and files, and videos 355 suchas videos from tutors or professors, videos of live classes, or otherinstructional videos. Education application 252 may include any or allof the modules and components of FIG. 2.

Facebook 340 is one example of any of a variety of third-party socialmedia companies that may provide authentication services for theeducation company in order to authenticate any of its users. Computerserver 344 is one or many computers under control of the third-partysocial media company that provides the authentication services. Ofcourse, server 350 may be hosted on yet another content deliverynetwork, yet still be under control of the third-party social mediacompany.

Limited Number of Tokens for Use Per Month

In tandem with the social media account requirement as described above,the education company charges for online learning content via theeducation application 352 through a token system. The student purchasesa monthly membership that comes with a certain number of tokens, andeach item of learning content or service offered (e.g., view a video,download a PDF file, attend a live session, pick up a paper studypacket, post questions on the content wall, contact a live expert viachat, e-mail, telephone, etc.) requires one or more tokens to be used.Such a token system helps prevent students from sharing accounts withothers since each student has a limited amount of tokens that can beused each month. Tokens not used in a given month do not roll over tothe next month and are not transferable. Tokens are tied to a particularstudent account and may only be used within that account.

There are different levels of membership offered. The followingdescribes one embodiment, but there may be more or fewer levels ofmembership. There are three different levels of membership currentlyoffered. Each membership level costs a different amount and provides adifferent number of tokens per month (or other time period), i.e.,tokens recharge each month according to level. The Silver membershiplevel, or basic tier, provides 50 tokens per month but may only offeraccess to certain types of content or service (e.g., only certain typesof video or certain times of support). The Gold membership level, thesecond tier, provides 100 tokens per month and provides access to allcontent. The Diamond membership level, the highest tier, provides 200tokens per month and also provides access to all content. The model usedin the token system is “use them or lose them,” that is, tokens unusedin a given month do not carry over to the next month. For example, if astudent with a Gold membership has 25 tokens left on the final day ofthe month, on the first day the next month the account will bereplenished and will again have 100 tokens on the first day. In anotherembodiment, tokens do roll over to another month or have an expirationdate after a set amount of time (e.g., one semester, one year, etc.).

Note that this token membership system may be tied to and used in tandemwith the social media account requirement. Students do not createaccounts through the education company, but are instead required to usea social media account, e.g., Facebook, in order to login. Becausestudents do not want to share their social media credentials and areprevented from using fake social media accounts as described above,students will not share their accounts' token allotments with others;thus students are unable to share or sell tokens that they do not use.

Tokens may be used online within a student's account to view any videooffered via the education application, to view any file or documentsavailable online, to download files or documents, to register for a livereview session that the student will attend at a future time, toregister to pick up a paper study packet in the future, to purchase timein order to communicate with a study expert online or by telephone, orto post questions and receive answers online on a message board, blog,message wall, etc. When a student checks in to a session at a physicalbuilding location, the staff checking the student in deducts theappropriate number of tokens in the system for attending the session orpicking up study packets. The system of deduction may be automatic ormanual.

The number of tokens required to access each item of content dependsupon a variety of factors including: the length of the video ordocument; the demand for a particular video or document; the class towhich the video document pertains; the expertise, credentials orexperience of the instructor in the video; the length of the studypacket; the length of the review session; the time spent with a studyexpert online; etc. Students are told that each action will require aminimum of one token. If more than one token is required for the actionthe student will receive a popup message informing them of the number oftokens required. The student must then click a checkbox acknowledgingthat the action will require additional tokens and that they agree andwould like to proceed. The student also has the option of canceling therequest if they do not wish to use the number of tokens required.

Because tokens are limited in number per month, because each studentmust use his or her own tokens within his or her own account, andbecause tokens do not roll over to the next month, students are providedan incentive to choose the plan that best fits his or her needs but atthe same time is prevented from sharing an account. Students are able tosee the number of tokens remaining on the home page of the educationapplication as well as in their “My Account” page. Within the “MyAccount” page, the student can view a detailed transaction history ofhow their tokens have been used. This report can be viewed within theapplication or exported to be saved by the student if desired. Thisreport of token usage is also accessible by employees of the educationcompany to assist in customer service.

FIG. 4 illustrates a window 400 presented to a user for purchasingtokens. As shown, there are different membership options, and in thisexample there are three options. In a first option 404, a student maypurchase 50 tokens per month for $25; in a second option 408, a studentmay purchase 100 tokens per month for $50; and, in a third option 412, astudent may purchase 200 tokens per month for $75. Of course, otherprices, tokens and benefits are possible with these or other options. Astudent may also purchase individual tokens as shown in section 416.

FIG. 5 illustrates a window 420 indicating a successful transaction.After a student has purchased an option window 420 may appear, detailingin section 422 the fee paid, the membership level, the next date onwhich the fee will again be charged and the tokens will recharge, andthe confirmation code for the transaction.

FIG. 6 illustrates an account page 430 for a particular student. Shownis general information in section 432 including name, a uniqueidentifier for the student, school attended, e-mail address andtelephone number. Detailed information includes membership level 434,tokens remaining 436 during the current month (or other membership timeperiod), date 438 when the last transaction occurred, and a date 440when the next fee will be deducted and the tokens will again recharge.

FIG. 7 illustrates a window 450 showing the history of a particularstudent account. Shown in column 452 is the specific activity (i.e.,downloading a review guide, watching a video, etc.), column 454 showsthe date and columns 456 show the tokens in the account before and afterthe activity. For example, the video in the final row of historyrequires 15 tokens and column 456 reflects that transaction.

FIG. 8 illustrates a window 460 showing a token agreement. When astudent desires to use, watch or download educational content requiringmore than one token, the window describes the length 462 of the video,the number of tokens required 464, and the name of the course and videoname 466. Emphasizing the number of tokens required in this manner meansthat it is less likely that a student can argue that he or sheinadvertently selected an expensive video to watch.

FIG. 9 illustrates a window 470 that appears when a student has run outof tokens in a particular month. The student would need to purchase moretokens or complete another action to acquire tokens (such as invitingfriends to the application) to continue watching videos, etc.

Flow Diagram

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram describing one embodiment by which tokens arepurchased, used and recharged in connection with an educationapplication. As mentioned above, even though a student may purchase acertain number of tokens per month, these limited tokens do not carryover to the next month; at the beginning of each month any remainingtokens are deleted from the student's account and the account isrecharged with the monthly tokens that have been purchased.

In step 504 student 320 uses a computer 330 in order to interact withthe education application 352; during the course of this interaction thevarious membership options are displayed to the student, such as shownin FIG. 4. The student may have logged in to the education applicationalready, or, the student may login after making a selection. In step 508the student selects one of the membership options and via one of theseoptions selects a particular price to pay per month, a quantity oftokens that will be received each month, and a time period over whichthe tokens may be used, such as over the course of one month. Of course,other time periods may be presented in the membership options such as aquantity of tokens per week, a quantity of tokens valid over threemonths, etc.

Next, in step 512 the student's account is reset (or initiated) tocontain only the quantity of tokens purchased over the time period(e.g., during one month). Accordingly, in step 516 the student may beginusing these tokens to purchase educational content, such as watchingvideos 355, reading or making postings 353, downloading documents 354,etc. these tokens may be used during the one-month period, for example.Periodically, the education application performs a check 520 as towhether the time period has ended. If one month is up then in step 524the student's account is cleared of all tokens (i.e., the token quantityis set to zero), the student's credit card, debit card, checking accountor other is charged for the next month, and the token quantity is resetin step 512. If the period has not ended then the student may continueto exchange tokens in step 516.

Another check 532 is also performed periodically of the student account.If all of the tokens have been used at any point during the month thenthe student may be charged again in step 528 for another month and thenext month will begin at that time. Alternatively, the student may beprompted to purchase individual tokens during the remainder of thatmonth. In any case, the educational content is not available to thestudents if all of his or her tokens have been used.

Limited Time Viewing Window

In another technique to deter sharing of accounts or resources, everyvideo or online document has a limited time in which the video ordocument can be viewed. For example, a four-hour video has an eight-hourviewing window; thus, once a student opens a video, he or she has eighthours in which to finish watching it. If the student tries to watch thesame video more than eight hours later, the education application takesaway again the number of tokens required to watch the video. If this isa video that requires more than one token to view, the student willagain receive the previously mentioned popup informing them of the tokenrequirement. Similarly, a PDF file may be viewed only within the timewindow. If the student attempts to open the file more than eight hourslater either the file will not open, or the student must use tokens toopen the file.

The application may tell the student that their viewing window isshorter than it is in actuality; for instance, should the actual timelimit be eight hours in which to consume a given product, the student istold that he or she has a six-hour window (the stated time limit)instead of eight, so that if the student asks for more minutes in whichto watch a video or read a document due to unexpected changes to his orher schedule, the company may agree to more time, even though thecompany does not need to do anything in actuality. This maintains theefficacy of the limited time viewing window technique without having todeal with excessive customer service issues. The provider is also ableto prevent two types of fraud by users who want to claim they beganwatching only “six hours ago” but now are unable to access the video.Consider first if it has been only six hours. Because the internalnumber (e.g., “eight hours”) is more than the stated viewing window(“six hours”), the provider knows that user is trying to fraudulentlyobtain more viewing opportunities (because if only six hours have passedas the user claims, the user should still be able to access video). Or,if the user rightly claims that they are unable to access the video but“only six hours have passed,” this means that the user has actually beenwatching for more than eight hours and again is trying to obtain moreviewing opportunities.

Having the viewing window in place also makes it more difficult forstudents attempting to share an account to watch the same video withoutbeing charged additional tokens. With a longer viewing window (or noviewing window at all), it would be more probable for the video to bewatched multiple times by different students within the given viewingwindow, without additional tokens being deducted from the student'saccount.

Use of an extended time viewing window also allows for the avoidance ofconfusion on the part of the student on the amount of time they have tocomplete the video. For example, a student may believe that as long asthey restart the video within the stated time limit that they should beallowed to watch it, when in reality, they must complete the videowithin the actual time limit Due to this extension, any misconceptionswill not pose a problem. For example, if a student were to open atwo-hour video having a stated three-hour viewing window (and an actualtime limit four hours), watch for fifteen minutes, then pause the video,they could restart the video two hours later and still finish the videowithin the actual time window.

Note that this viewing window technique is different from subscriptionmodels like Netflix (in which viewers can watch a given show any timeafter the show is started, as long as the monthly membership ismaintained). This technique is also distinct from lending models such asthe one employed by the Apple iTunes store, in which a viewer may rent amovie. The viewer has a given number of days in which to start watchingthe video (e.g., 30 days) and once movie is started, a given number ofhours (e.g., 24 hours) to play the video. In contrast, the educationcompany's viewing window is within the context of a membership model(one has to be a member to even play a video) and there are twodifferent time restrictions—the stated limit and the actual one.

Further, note that even though iTunes may give a user 24 hours to watcha video as many times as he or she may want, the present invention isdifferent. Via the education application, one may watch a video as manytimes as one wishes, but, one will be charged each time the video iswatched outside of the actual viewing window. The viewing window may be150% or 200% of the video length, for example. Preferably, the viewingwindow is not 100% of the length of video since the student may wish topause the video, as the video contains educational content. In anotherexample, for a two-hour review session, the student may receive athree-hour or four-hour viewing window (the actual time limit) since itis desirable that the student only watch it once, but there is extratime as a student may need to pause and think, or rewind the video andwatch one part of it again. There is an actual time limit, however,because if the student desires to watch the video again outside of thetime limit, it is desirable to charge the student again in the samecalendar day the number of tokens that the video requires. Note thatiTunes, for example, may provide 24 hours in which to watch a certainone-hour video as many times as one wants for a single fee, whereas thepresent invention will charge the user each time the video is watchedoutside of the actual viewing window. Accordingly, use of the aboveviewing windows and extended time windows not only deters fraud but alsomaximizes revenue for the education company.

As mentioned above, FIG. 8 shows a screen shot 460 of a message to thestudent describing a particular video. Note that the video may be aslong as two hours, yet it is stated that the student has six hours inwhich to watch the video. This stated time limit may be the actual timelimit, although in one embodiment as mentioned above the actual timelimit may be as long as eight hours.

Flow Diagram

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram describing use of a limited time viewingwindow for watching a video. Previously, a student has logged into hisor her account and has available a certain number of tokens by which topay for any of the educational content such as videos 355, documents354, or even the ability to post questions onto a class wall 353 andreceive answers. At some point in time, in step 604 a student 320 willuse their computer system 30 or mobile device 60 (such as computer 330)to make a particular selection of a video or PDF document via contentdelivery network 350. Next, the education application 352 may display tothe student in step 608 a window such as shown in FIG. 8 in which thelength of the video is disclosed along with a stated time limit in whichthe video must be watched. The student may also be requested to confirmthat watching the selected video (or document) will take a certainnumber of tokens. The time limit stated in FIG. 8 may be the actual timelimit after which the video made no longer be watched, or may be lessthan an actual time limit as described above. Assuming that the studentwishes to continue, in step 612 the number of tokens for a particularvideo or document is deducted from the student account and in step 616the education application begins streaming the selected video from thecontent delivery network to the user's computing device.

Preferably, any suitable streaming technique is used to deliver a videoor document to the student's computing device. In this manner, thestudent is not provided with possession of the complete video ordocument (as if he or she had been able to download the video ordocument) and is not able to view a video or document as often as he orshe likes for only one price. Because the video is being streamed, theeducation application may terminate the streaming if it is attemptedafter the actual time limit.

At some point in time, the student may pause or stop the video (or mayeven log out of his or her account and log in later at a later time on adifferent computing device) and then request that the video berestarted. This request may not be an explicit request, but may be assimple as clicking the “play” button on a video a short time after thestudent has paused the video. Once this request has been received by theeducation application, the application determines if the restart requestis within the stated time limit or the actual time limit. For example,as shown in FIG. 8, the video may be two hours long and has a statedtime limit of six hours, but the actual time limit may be eight hours.Based upon this determination, control may move to step 624, 628 or 636.

If the request is before the end of the stated time limit then in step624 control moves immediately to step 616 and the student is allowed tocontinue watching the video or viewing a document. As far as the studentis concerned, this decision is transparent and the student is unawarethat any determination has been made. If the request is after the end ofthe stated time limit, but before the end of the actual time limit, thenin step 628 the education application may grant access in step 632 sothat the student may continue watching the video. This granting ofaccess may be transparent in that the education application mayimmediately begin playing the video once the student has clicked uponthe “play” button or the application may display a screen stating that“You are over the time limit, but you may continue watching as anexception for you.” Alternatively, the application may indicate to thestudent that the video may not be watched because the time is after thestated time limit and may require the student to make a special requestto watch the video which would most likely always be granted. In anycase, the student may continue streaming the video to his or hercomputing device.

On the other hand, if the request is after the end of the actual timelimit then in step 636 streaming of the video or document is ceased andcontrol moves to step 640. In this step the student is informed that atime limit has expired and is requested to pay more tokens in order toview the video document again (i.e., 15 more tokens are required). Ifthe student agrees then the stated tokens are deducted in step 612 andthe video document may again be streamed to the student's device. If thestudent does not agree, then in step 644 the education applicationdenies further access to the video or document.

Computer System Embodiment

FIG. 12 in cooperation with the above provides a general description ofa computing environment that may be used to implement various aspects ofthe present invention. For purposes of brevity and clarity, embodimentsof the invention may be described in the general context ofcomputer-executable instructions, such as program application modules,objects, applications, models, or macros being executed by a computer,which may include but is not limited to personal computer systems,hand-held devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based orprogrammable consumer electronics, network PCs, mini computers,mainframe computers, and other equivalent computing and processingsub-systems and systems. Aspects of the invention may be practiced indistributed computing environments where tasks or modules are performedby remote processing devices linked through a communications network.Various program modules, data stores, repositories, models, federators,objects, and their equivalents may be located in both local and remotememory storage devices.

By way of example, a conventional personal computer, referred to hereinas a computer 100, includes a processing unit 102, a system memory 104,and a system bus 106 that couples various system components includingthe system memory to the processing unit. The computer 100 will at timesbe referred to in the singular herein, but this is not intended to limitthe application of the invention to a single computer since, in typicalembodiments, there will be more than one computer or other deviceinvolved. The processing unit 102 may be any logic processing unit, suchas one or more central processing units (CPUs), digital signalprocessors (DSPs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs),etc.

The system bus 106 can employ any known bus structures or architectures,including a memory bus with memory controller, a peripheral bus, and alocal bus. The system memory 104 includes read-only memory (“ROM”) 108and random access memory (“RAM”) 110. A basic input/output system(“BIOS”) 112, which can form part of the ROM 108, contains basicroutines that help transfer information between elements within thecomputer 100, such as during start-up.

The computer 100 also includes a hard disk drive 114 for reading fromand writing to a hard disk 116, and an optical disk drive 118 and amagnetic disk drive 120 for reading from and writing to removableoptical disks 122 and magnetic disks 124, respectively. The optical disk122 can be a CD-ROM, while the magnetic disk 124 can be a magneticfloppy disk or diskette. The hard disk drive 114, optical disk drive118, and magnetic disk drive 120 communicate with the processing unit102 via the bus 106. The hard disk drive 114, optical disk drive 118,and magnetic disk drive 120 may include interfaces or controllers (notshown) coupled between such drives and the bus 106, as is known by thoseskilled in the relevant art. The drives 114, 118, 120, and theirassociated computer-readable media, provide nonvolatile storage ofcomputer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, andother data for the computer 100. Although the depicted computer 100employs hard disk 116, optical disk 122, and magnetic disk 124, thoseskilled in the relevant art will appreciate that other types ofcomputer-readable media that can store data accessible by a computer maybe employed, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digitalvideo disks (“DVD”), Bernoulli cartridges, RAMs, ROMs, smart cards, etc.

Program modules can be stored in the system memory 104, such as anoperating system 126, one or more application programs 128, otherprograms or modules 130 and program data 132. The application programs128, program or modules 130, and program data 132 may includeinformation, instructions and parameters for creating, manipulating,scoring, ranking, uploading, and processing information to determine abest-fit match between students and tutors, to determine a certificationof a tutor, provide filtering by a course code, etc. The system memory104 may also include a browser 134 for permitting the computer 100 toaccess and exchange data with sources such as Web sites of the Internet,corporate intranets, or other networks as described above, as well asother server applications on server computers such as those furtherdiscussed above. In one embodiment, the browser 134 may be used toaccess course materials, view a tutor profile, and share information(e.g., questions or comments) with a tutor or otherwise build-updatabases of information that may be customized for a variety ofpurposes in a learning environment. The browser 134 in the depictedembodiment is markup language based, such as Hypertext Markup Language(HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML) or Wireless Markup Language(WML), and operates with markup languages that use syntacticallydelimited characters added to the data of a document to represent thestructure of the document. Although the depicted embodiment shows thecomputer 100 as a personal computer, in other embodiments, the computeris some other computer-related device such as a tablet, a television, apersonal data assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone (or other mobiledevice).

The operating system 126 may be stored in the system memory 104, asshown, while application programs 128, other programs/modules 130,program data 132, and browser 134 can be stored on the hard disk 116 ofthe hard disk drive 114, the optical disk 122 of the optical disk drive118, and/or the magnetic disk 124 of the magnetic disk drive 120. A usercan enter commands and information into the computer 100 through inputdevices such as a keyboard 136 and a pointing device such as a mouse138. Other input devices can include a microphone, joystick, game pad,scanner, etc. These and other input devices are connected to theprocessing unit 102 through an interface 140 such as a serial portinterface that couples to the bus 106, although other interfaces such asa parallel port, a game port, a wireless interface, or a universalserial bus (“USB”) can be used. Another interface device that may becoupled to the bus 106 is a docking station 141 configured to receiveand electronically engage a digital pen or stylus for the purpose ofdata transmission, charging, etc. A monitor 142 or other display deviceis coupled to the bus 106 via a video interface 144, such as a videoadapter. The computer 100 can include other output devices, such asspeakers, printers, etc.

The computer 100 can operate in a networked environment using logicalconnections to one or more remote computers, such as a server computer146. The server computer 146 can be another personal computer, a server,another type of computer, or a collection of more than one computercommunicatively linked together and typically includes many or all theelements described above for the computer 100. The server computer 146is logically connected to one or more of the computers 100 under anyknown method of permitting computers to communicate, such as through alocal area network (“LAN”) 148, or a wide area network (“WAN”) or theInternet 150. Such networking environments are well known in wired andwireless enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets, extranets, andthe Internet. Other embodiments include other types of communicationnetworks, including telecommunications networks, cellular networks,paging networks, and other mobile networks. The server computer 146 maybe configured to run server applications 147.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 100 is connectedto the LAN 148 through an adapter or network interface 152(communicatively linked to the bus 106). When used in a WAN networkingenvironment, the computer 100 often includes a modem 154 or otherdevice, such as the network interface 152, for establishingcommunications over the WAN/Internet 150. The modem 154 may becommunicatively linked between the interface 140 and the WAN/Internet150. In a networked environment, program modules, application programs,or data, or portions thereof, can be stored in the server computer 146.In the depicted embodiment, the computer 100 is communicatively linkedto the server computer 146 through the LAN 148 or the WAN/Internet 150with TCP/IP middle layer network protocols; however, other similarnetwork protocol layers are used in other embodiments. Those skilled inthe relevant art will readily recognize that the network connections areonly some examples of establishing communication links betweencomputers, and other links may be used, including wireless links.

The server computer 146 is further communicatively linked to a legacyhost data system 156 typically through the LAN 148 or the WAN/Internet150 or other networking configuration such as a direct asynchronousconnection (not shown). Other embodiments may support the servercomputer 146 and the legacy host data system 156 on one computer systemby operating all server applications and legacy host data system on theone computer system. The legacy host data system 156 may take the formof a mainframe computer. The legacy host data system 156 is configuredto run host applications 158, such as in system memory, and store hostdata 160 such as business related data.

Although the foregoing invention has been described in some detail forpurposes of clarity of understanding, it will be apparent that certainchanges and modifications may be practiced within the scope of theappended claims. Therefore, the described embodiments should be taken asillustrative and not restrictive, and the invention should not belimited to the details given herein but should be defined by thefollowing claims and their full scope of equivalents.

I claim:
 1. A method of limiting account sharing, said method comprising: receiving login information via a first computing device for an account of a user and logging in said first computing device to a server application, wherein streaming video of said server application is available to any computing device logged in using said login information of said user; deducting a number of tokens from said user account in a computer database corresponding to a price of a video of said server application; starting to stream said video from a computer server to said first computing device of said user, wherein said streamed video is not downloaded to said first computing device; receiving a request from a second computing device to start streaming of said video to said second computing device after a time has elapsed since said starting; comparing said elapsed time to a stated time limit and granting said request when said elapsed time is less than said stated time limit or when said elapsed time is greater than said stated time limit but less than an actual time limit, whereby said streamed video continues to be available for viewing via said user account; and when it is determined that said elapsed time is greater than said actual time limit, said actual time limit being greater than said stated time limit, denying said request, whereby said streamed video is no longer available to be streamed to said any computing device logged in using said login information of said user.
 2. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein said first computing device and said second computing device are the same computing device.
 3. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein said second computing device is different from said first computing device.
 4. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising: after said starting and before said receiving, receiving a request from said first computing device to pause streaming of said video.
 5. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising: after said determining that said elapsed time is greater than said actual time limit, again deducting said number of tokens from said user account; and restarting delivery of said video to said second computing device.
 6. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein said stated time limit is known to said user and said actual time limit is not known to said user.
 7. A method of limiting account sharing, said method comprising: receiving login information via a computing device for an account of a user and logging in said computing device to a server application, wherein streaming video of said server application is available to any computing device logged in using said login information of said user; deducting a number of tokens from said user account in a computer database corresponding to a price of a video of said server application; starting to stream said video from a computer server to said computing device of said user, wherein said streamed video is not downloaded to said computing device; receiving a request from said computing device to restart streaming of said video to said computing device after a time has elapsed since said starting; comparing said elapsed time to a stated time limit and granting said request when said elapsed time is less than said stated time limit or when said elapsed time is greater than said stated time limit but less than an actual time limit, whereby said streamed video continues to be available for viewing via said user account; and comparing said elapsed time to said actual time limit and denying said request when said elapsed time is greater than said actual time limit, whereby said item is no longer available for viewing via said student account.
 8. A method as recited in claim 7 further comprising: after said comparing said elapsed time to said actual time limit, again deducting said number of tokens from said user account; and restarting delivery of said video to said computing device.
 9. A method as recited in claim 7 further comprising: after said starting and before said receiving, receiving a request from said computing device to pause streaming of said video.
 10. A method as recited in claim 7 wherein said stated time limit is known to said user and said actual time limit is not known to said user. 